So, it's one week into Nano - how are we all going? Personally, I'm behind - about 5,000 words behind, last I looked. But that's okay - I knew the first two weeks were going to be spotty, as I have a semester to wrap up, which includes a truckload of exams to mark, and hree weeks' worth of student emails to answer. There are also regular days that I don't get any writing done that I need to account for.

And five thousand words (or probably ten, by the end of next week) is less than it sounds - it adds another 700 words to my goal in the last two weeks, or, as is more likely, I'll have two or three days where I write around four thousand words, and catch up that way. At the moment, I'm aiming for 2000 a day to counter for the days I can't write, and the days I didn't get to.

I have a couple of tricks to get me there, though:

• Write to a time limit. I set a timer for twenty minutes, and I have to write for that twenty minutes.
  • This helps me both get into the chair, because "it's only twenty minutes",
  • stay in the chair, (again, because it's only twenty minutes),
  • and I usually find that by the time twenty minutes is up, I'm into the story and on a roll and really want to finish the scene (more on scenes below).
• Several sessions. I can't write two thousand words in twenty minutes (well, not two thousand good words) and often I'll be interrupted (either by life or my own need for procrastination) before I've made my quota. So I plan to write in several small chunks each day.This has a couple of benefits:
  • it keeps the story alive in your head through the day,
  • it makes getting into the chair easier (again) because you're only going to climb a small mountain,
  • and it stops you making excuses along the lines of "Oh, but I already did my writing session for today, and I didn't make the quota". There's no set limit to how many sessions - it's how many it takes, or how many you have time for.
• Write in scenes. A scene is whatever you make it - my story has two points of view, and I shift between them every half-chapter (ish, I don't have official chapters, it's just a convenience thing at the moment), but you can use locations or even beats (shifts in emotion or goals) to define them.
  • The main trick is to make them a length you can usually finish in a day of writing (two at the most). This gives you added incentive to continue writing and reach (or exceed) your quota, just to finish the scene.
  • It also makes it easier to pick up - instead of trying to hold the whole novel in your head while you're writing, you can just focus on the scene. It helps put the novel into 'chunks' - you can think about how one chunk relates to another, and planning becomes much easier.
  • You can jump around in the novel if the next scene is awkward/unpalatable/just not what you're in the mood for right now.

How are you getting to your quota?